Health IT, Hospitals, Patient Engagement

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center CMIO: HIMSS should make PHR higher priority

Although the HIMSS14 conference hummed with conversations about population health, applications for big data and […]

Although the HIMSS14 conference hummed with conversations about population health, applications for big data and tools for physicians to remotely monitor and engage patients more effectively, personal health records didn’t seem to be a significant talking point.

That disappointed Dr. Andrew Watson, a surgeon at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center who is also a CMIO and the director of its Center for Connected Health. He sees PHRs as essential to making patient engagement in healthcare meaningful.

I counted roughly 65 companies listed in the HIMSS catalogue under the heading of “personal health records systems.” But they face the same sorts of challenges that electronic health record providers are trying to grapple with: interoperability. Beyond the Blue Button project for veterans, the iBlueButton initiative by the Office of the National Coordinator to make health records available through mobile devices is limited by the companies that connect to it. At the conference, the ONC previewed a website to help consumers pool their personal health information online called “Blue Button Connector,” though it readily admitted the current limitations:

“Many consumers still do not have access to their health data from any source. Even for those that do, obtaining it from multiple places can be, even with the help of the Connector, a time consuming process. We expect that in the near future consumers will be able to get their data directly from multiple sources via more seamless mechanisms.

GetReal Health includes integration with EHR providers Greenway, Eclipsys, Allscripts ePrescribe, Health Screens, EPJS and Kinlogix but there are several prominent EHR providers that aren’t on that list. Some observers note that the personal health records developed by the major health IT vendors bear a close resemblance to their own EHRs and face similar interoperability limits.

Wen Dombrowski pointed out that the growth of patient portals was also creating its own set of problems:

 

If medical societies took a more active role in pushing the benefits of PHRs, maybe HIMSS would make it a higher priority. One gap that some have pointed out to me is the problem of keeping PHRs as up to date as EHRs. Although HIMSS isn’t a direct-to-consumer event, it might make for some interesting insights to invite consumers to give feedback on some of the PHRs that are available and see what would make them more likely to use them.

Shares0
Shares0